Smriti Irani, Amit Shah get front row seats in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi retains second row

Union Minister Smriti Irani, who made her Lok Sabha debut by defeating Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his constituency Amethi in the recently-concluded 2019 General elections, has been assigned a front-row seat in the lower house of Parliament. 

Beside Irani, Union Home Minister and Gandhinagar MP Amit Shah and Law Minister and Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad - first time Lok Sabha members as well - will also be in the first row in the house.

Though Mr Shah and Mr Prasad have been in the first row in Rajya Sabha earlier, this will be the first time for Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani in the front row in parliament.

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Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Sadanan Gowda, Narendra Singh Tomar, Arjun Munda and Arvind Sawant have also been selected for the first row by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. From the opposition, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav have retained their seats in the front row. 

However, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who lost to Smriti Irani in Uttar Pradesh's Amethi but won from Wayanad in Kerala, has been allotted his existing seat in the second row in Lok Sabha. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and DMK's TR Baalu have also been placed on the front row.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a reserved corner seat to the right of the Speaker. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, considered the senior-most minister in the cabinet, will retain his seat next to the Prime Minister. One seat in the front row has been kept vacant for the deputy speaker, who is yet to be elected.

First-time MP Smriti Irani took oath on June 17 along with other MPs. While taking the oath Irani was welcomed with the loudest cheers by the house. 

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